


Graceland

by Edgemont



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-18
Updated: 2014-04-18
Packaged: 2018-01-19 20:09:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1482349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edgemont/pseuds/Edgemont
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Logan visits Keith in the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graceland

**Author's Note:**

> As a parent myself, I get where Keith is coming from. Even RT says he wants his daughter to end up with a Piz. Most of us would pick the absence of pain over epic romance for our kids any day, but of course that may cheat them out of actually being happy....
> 
> Rights to these characters belong to others; these are just my imaginings...
> 
> Title a reference to both Paul Simon and Elvis, both of which I imagine Keith likes.

The pain is so intense it’s almost blinding. It has been a week since the accident and they are letting him control his own pain meds now. He craves the release of the narcotic cocktail in the bag above his head, but he refuses to press the button. He cannot let himself get hooked, he has to stay sane and sober for Veronica. She needs one parent who’s not a junkie. _Veronica._ How can this be happening to them, to her?

Of course there is another reason that he is staying off the good stuff. The meds make him mellow. He does not want to be mellow, wants instead to hold on to the white hot rage that has settled in his chest, the anger that he can feel everywhere, in his crushed pelvis, his cracked ribs, his shattered leg. The pain is the rage and the rage keeps him going. The rage is all he has to work with now.

How could everything have gone from perfect to perfectly upended in under a week? Keith knows how. Because of _him_. She had it all worked out. He was so proud of her. Despite everything, the violence and the betrayal and the loss, she had triumphed. She was smart and focused and beautiful and she was his daughter, the only good thing had ever produced. Of course she belonged in New York, far away from this sleazy town. She loved New York. Of course she had aced law school, she was amazing, and then she was interviewing at a big New York law firm. He had no idea what she would be doing there but he didn’t care, all he knew was that you didn’t get killed for doing it.

He knew how much she would be making, had googled _starting salary New York law firm_ when she refused to tell him, and had let out a low whistle when he saw the number. That would erase those student loans in a hurry, they could both relax. He had imagined her flying him out to visit, they would go to a Yankees game, the good seats, and he would say _Who’s your daddy?_ and she would say _Don’t ever say that again._ He had been happy to fold Stosh into this mental picture, they could get three seats to the game, she would sit between them. He was fine with that, because Stosh would never hurt her, would never break his lamp and tell him he was a bad father. Stosh was from _Oregon_ , for Christ’s sake, and had a job on public radio, and other than that unfortunate name he had been saddled with, what was there not to like? It wasn’t as if she’d be changing her name to Veronica Piznarski, anyway. And she, most of all, should have known the good guys were few and far between.

And now it was all gone. All of it. When he had heard the message from the lawyer, Gayle something-or-other, it had nearly made him sick. He had started making dinner, by rote, hoping that she would come home and tell him it was all a mistake. _Don’t worry Dad, I talked to her. It was just some confusion over which number to call. I’m starting on Monday._ Instead she had come in, flying high on the rush of the big case and the chance to save _him_ once again, Keith could see that, as if she were eighteen and not twenty-eight. _Logan’s coming over , be nice Daddy,_ she had said, or something like that. He had lost his temper, which he tried not to do with her, it was usually counterproductive, but he couldn’t help himself. And then he had gone outside to meet Sacks and the rest of it was mostly a blur.

Apparently it was him, That Echolls Kid, as he still preferred to think of him, who pulled him from the car before the second impact, the one that killed Sacks. _He saved your life Dad_ , she had told him when she had come to visit him in the hospital for the first time and, _he’s changed_ , as if the two thoughts were somehow connected. But Keith wasn’t really surprised that Logan had pulled him from the car. He had never thought Logan lacked courage, or the ability to act on impulse. None of that suggested change. People were just the sum total of their experiences. Logan may have added a uniform and a fighter jet, but underneath, he was who he was. Keith had tried to warn her – _he’s got a dark side_. Who gets accused of murder three times before they’re even 30? And now That Echolls Kid was probably fucking his daughter in Keith’s own house. _The house. He could lose the house._ Not that _he_ would understand that, his car probably cost more than Keith’s mortgage. Probably fucking her and giving her some venereal disease that she’d have to testify about at Stu Cobb’s trial. _Welcome back, Veronica_.

He should have taken her away from Neptune. After Lianne left, and he was no longer sheriff. He could have got a job in another town, selling real estate or photographing weddings or something. They didn’t need to stay there, in that town, him disappearing for days on end on some case to get the rent money, relying on her to be fine, to keep it together. It wasn’t fair. _It’s the family business_ , she had said, and whose fault was that? But at least they knew it wasn’t forever, she was on her way out and up. _Eyes on the prize_ , Veronica, he would say and she would answer, _There’s a prize? Is it a pony?_ but they both knew what he meant.

The pain is worse now, and he reaches for the button, presses it. It will help him sleep and the doctor said sleep was what he needed. But there is someone in the doorway, not Veronica, a man dressed in white, is it an orderly, or a nurse? And then he sees the insignia, it is a uniform and then the curl of the lip, unmistakable. It is _him_.

Logan enters the room, obviously unsure of himself, and for a moment Keith thinks he will just close his eyes, pretend to be asleep, and avoid the whole thing. But what the hell. Might as well put that rage to good use. Let it out just a bit, a hiss of acid and sparks.

“Mr. Mars?” Logan says, approaching the bed. “I wanted to check in, to see how you were coming along.”

“Stronger every day, they tell me” Keith says with false heartiness, although his voice is hoarse, it betrays him. I’ll be back on my feet in no time.” _And then she can leave._ “You’re in uniform,” he adds. “Are you shipping out?” – he phrases the question to sound hopeful. Logan sits in the visitor’s chair before answering. He is leaner now, looks calm and focused. It is Logan and not Logan at the same time. Keith is disoriented. 

“One week to go. I was doing some preparatory work today, and so the uniform.” Logan goes silent, as if he is waiting. Keith thinks, _he is waiting for me to thank him, for saving my life, for his service to our country, for being a goddamn hero._ Keith is silent. _The hero is the one who stays, you jackass. I may not be able to land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier, but I will never leave her._ He waits for Logan to say something.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Mars.” 

This is not what Keith expects. He answers without thinking. “For what?”

“I told myself I would not break down and call her, ever. That it would have to be her calling me. And for nine years, I kept that promise.” “Hell,” he adds. “I joined the military so that I would have a life that made it impossible to be with her”. He sounds as if he is talking to himself. “But when Carrie died, and I saw that no one cared if I actually did it or not, I panicked. And I called her. But I didn’t mean to draw her back in to all of this. I don’t want her doing this work any more than you do.”

_But you wanted her to do it for you,_ Keith thinks. _You could have called me. I do this kind of work. Would have done it for free, just to keep her out of Neptune._ But he knows that he couldn’t have done what she did, not really. He starts to feel the tiniest bit sorry for this kid, with his dead parents and his hotel suite for a home and not a single person on this entire earth who loves him. _Except Veronica_.

“How is this going to work, Logan?”, Keith asks. With you gone, and her waiting for you here in Neptune, trying to get Weevil out of his latest frame up and not even getting paid for it? What is this exactly?” He is drifting out of focus as the meds kick in, needs rest, can’t keep this up much longer.

Again, the answer is not what Keith expects. Logan’s voice is even, his tone serious. “I didn’t save your life Mr. Mars” he says. “Not really. Ten years ago I stood with her on a hotel roof after she watched you get blown into a million pieces. I heard those screams. I held her all night as she sobbed for her dad, finally put her to bed when she passed out from exhaustion. I don’t ever want to see that again,” he says, staring straight ahead. “I didn’t really save you, Mr. Mars” he says again. I saved her and I saved myself.”

Logan continues on. “Maybe it will take both of us to keep her safe and make her happy. I don’t know. I intend to try, anyway.”

_Corporate law in New York with Piz was safe_ , Keith thinks. _But maybe not happy._

Keith can really feel the meds working now, cooling the pain like ice in his veins. The absence of pain is the best feeling in the world. It blunts his rage and loosens his tongue. He looks at Logan, almost whispering, “I know she always kept the darkest parts from me. If I’m honest, I kind of went along with it. Sometimes, I wasn’t strong enough to know. Maybe she saved that for you. And you were just a boy.” It is the most he can muster. Not a blessing for the present, but at least absolution for the past.

Logan gets up to leave. “You should rest, Mr. Mars.” He is almost to the door when Keith answers him. “It’s Keith.” He closes his eyes.


End file.
